On behalf of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, I write to invite you to bethe first recipient of the Mind/Body/Spirit Award. This award will beconferred at the Spirituality and Healing in Medicine Conference, to be heldin Boston on December 14, 2001. The conference is being sponsored by theMind/Body Medical Institute and the Department of Continuing MedicalEducation, Harvard Medical School.

This award was created to honor an individual whose work and life exemplifythe integration of mind, body and spirit. The Institute would like to honoryou because you embody these attributes through the work you have donethroughout the world as a teacher and humanitarian. Notable guests at pastInstitute events have included His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sir JohnTempleton, Dr. Robert Coles, Goldie Hawn, Dr. Thomas Moore, Yo Yo Ma, andJane Alexander.

The Mind/Body Medical Institute, at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centerand Harvard Medical School, has evolved from over 35 years of work in thefield of mind/body medicine, which is the scientific application ofapproaches that include relaxation-response training in meditation, stressmanagement, nutrition, exercise, and spirituality. This multi-disciplinaryapproach addresses the total person and empowers them to achieve responsibleself-care. I was instrumental in establishing the field of mind/bodymedicine over thirty years ago coinciding with the publication of my numberone best selling book, The Relaxation Response.

The Institute's staff of highly trained scientists, physicians,psychologists, nurses, and educators have conducted groundbreaking researchin a variety of areas validating the healing aspects of meditation. We havedeveloped clinical programs to deliver the most up-to-date medical care forsymptom reduction for medical conditions caused or made worse by stress.

For more than 30 years, laboratories at the Harvard Medical School havesystematically studied the benefits of mind/body interactions. The researchestablished that when a person engages in a repetitive prayer, word, soundor phrase and when intrusive thoughts are passively disregarded, a specificset of physiological changes occurs. These changes are the opposite ofthose induced by stress. Our research has shown that the physiologicalchanges brought about through meditation are beneficial to numerous medicalconditions that include hypertension, cardiac rhythm irregularities, manyforms of chronic pain, insomnia, infertility, the symptoms of cancer andnumerous other conditions.

The example you have set through your work and commitment to improving thequality life through your mindfulness teachings are helping to bring aboutthe much-needed changes in the world. I look forward to discussing thisinvitation in more detail should you accept this award.